I can't get enough minimalism

The word antithetical (directly opposed or contrasted; mutually incompatible) comes to mind when I see anything at all connected to this trend toward minimalism. 

Minimalism is the philosophy of doing all right with fewer things. It's life stripped down to the barest essentials, with no extras. There is a Japanese woman named Marie Kondo who is raking in all sorts of coin these days for selling a book about "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up."

Marie Kondo has never been in my basement, or she would have had the vapors, and not minimally, I'll tell you that right now.

It does make me wonder if Ms Kondo would sell her book for fewer dollars, since she is so crazy about having fewer things.

She's been on television and is available for hire to come in and tell people like me why we don't need our report cards from elementary school, or a "Nixon's The One!" button from 1968, or three cross-cut saws, all of which are in our basement (a Kondo-free zone!)

This is a very popular deal in Japan, where Zen Buddhism also is, and where they like to think that less is more. One article I read about Japanese Minimalism said that since that island nation is earthquake-prone, its inhabitants are reluctant to have a lot of stuff on hand that might fly around the house when The Big One hits.

And I say, it would kill you to wear a helmet?

Really.

Seriously, I knew a man, widowed, who stripped his life down to the very leanest. I mean, he had one each: knife, fork and spoon, a cup and a saucer, and the most basic of kitchen implements. He had two or three shirts and pairs of pants, and maybe that many pairs of socks and skivvies. I remember my father saying he "lived like a lighthouse keeper." 

I know there are all kinds of people on this earth. Minimalists would want there to be only one, and let's be glad they aren't in charge!